r his amazing Rose Bowlperformance. I have to take some umbrage at LenDale White'sdecision to go. Bush's backfield mate could've had the SouthernCal spotlight all to himself with Reggie out of the picture,and, barring injury, would almost certainly have gone higher in'07 than in '06. Now comes the cavalcade of huh? Laurence Maroney out ofMinnesota? Hm. Nice back, lots of yards. But do it on the bigstage, Larry. Brian Calhoun of Wisconsin? Is he worried hismeteoric, out-of-nowhere 2005 will vanish if he hangs aroundlovely Madison one more year? Maurice Drew out of UCLA? I mean,he's a nice college player, but he's (maybe) 5'8", 205 lbs. He'sKevin Faulk. Demetris Summers out of South Carolina? (And I domean out of South Carolina: Steve Spurrier kicked the kid offthe Gamecocks football team after his freshman year; if you'retoo dirty for Steve Superior, you are mighty dir...

...ty.) Demetris.Buddy. Seems as though you could do with a littleMarcus-Vick-style maturation before setting your sights onMaurce-Clarett-land, huh? The bottom line here is: NFL teams aren't looking to pay runningbacks a lot of money anyway, which is why they typically waitand wait and wait to take them on draft day. (Who can forgetSteven Jackson's precipitous fall out of the first round twoyears ago?) Combine that with the fact that, like, everyone iscoming out early, and some of these fellows aren't going to getdrafted until the second day. Is school really that bad? What did the handicapping world think of the Wild Card weekendin the NFL? Bob Aggarwal, Professional Handicapper's League: Big surprise inmy mind as home cooking did not result in home wins. Also, verysurprised by the play of the New York Giants. Out-coached andoutright losers as three-point favorites at the Meadowlands? Wereally had that game pegged as being much closer. The CarolinaPanthers will give Chicago all they can handle Saturday. As faras the Pats go, they are really turning things around. They arenot quite as good-looking as they were last year during theirchampionship run, but they're awfully close. Their secondary iscertainly coming around. The Washington Redskins are doing itwith smoke and mirrors. 120 yards in offense will not get youpast the Seahwaks. They have to play much better on that side ofthe ball next week or they will be heading back to the nation'scapital losers. Greg Jorssen, BoDog.com: The underdogs and the favorites splittheir games; each winning twice. Thus handicapping worldbreathed a sigh of relief early on in the playoffs. Those thatplayed the Under last the weekend made out pretty good. That'snot surprising, considering this time of year finds defenseskicking it up a notch. In fact, the four teams that werevictorious held their opponents to a combined 30 points. We'reseeing an interesting development with the divisional playoffgames this weekend. Last year during the divisional playoffs,the favorites went 4-0 straight up and 3-1 against the spread,and the books did extremely well. We're seeing similar bettingtrends for this weekend; thus if the home teams do well andcover, we will see another strong result. It appears thatbettors have fallen in love with the one-week wonder and anapparent hate on for the home teams who have been the best teamall year! Very interesting trend indeed! Should Seattle and Indianapolis really be nearly double-digitfavorites over Washington and Pittsburgh next week? Especiallyin the case of Indy, am I crazy for thinking that seems high? GJ, BoDog.com: I think teaser bettors will be drooling overthese two games. The Seahawks and Colts both should win theirgames, but 9 and 10 points seems pretty high. The Steelers areon a roll, while the Colts limp into the playoffs on athree-game losing streak (yes, I know they beat the Cards, butbarely; that still counts as a loss in my books!) and have notplayed a game that means anything in the standings since Week15. Then again, they have Peyton Manning steering the ship andthey are the same team that went 13-0 after going 0-5 in thepre-season, thus should be no problem dusting off the cobwebsand getting the team refocused. As for the Seahawks, the booksopened up high due to the inability of the Redskins' offenseagainst the Bucs and the injury to Clinton Portis. If they cancapitalize on Seahawk turnovers and hold Alexander early, thiscould prove to be a hard fought and close affair. BA, Professional Handicapper's League: The Colts have not playeda meaningful game in six weeks. So no, I don't think you arecrazy for thinking this line is too high. Their offense is basedon rhythm, meaning they could easily be out-of-synch for aquarter or two. On the other hand, they could look like theColts of Weeks 1-14. If so, the Steelers are in for a long day,and the line would actually look a bit low. A tough call on thatone, on Sunday. Seattle is an awfully good football team. Ithink this line is based more upon the fact the Skins are reallydoing it with smoke and mirrors. How long can you rely onopportunistic defense to win you ballgames? Also, 120 yards outof your offense won't get you past the Seahawks. In thisballgame initially I don't think that line is high enough. What do you think of Vince Young's decision to enter the NFLDraft early? Where do you see him going, and do you think he'll be aneffective pro? BA, Professional Handicapper's League: Young's stock could notbe any higher than what it is now. After that Rose Bowlperformance, he had to go. I see him going to the Titans at #3and being an awfully good pro. Unlike Michael Vick, he alreadyhas an established arm. He showed that by leading the nationthis year in passing efficiency. This also tells us he has thecapability to make solid smart decisions. GJ, BoDog.com: What better time to turn pro than being the talkof the nation and stealing the spotlight away from Bush andLeinart? His performance brought him from a projected #9 or #10overall pick down to #2 or #3, thus you can't fault him forjumping over to the NFL. I think it would be wise for the Saintsto go with the quarterback that is more NFL ready right now,which is Matt Leinart. Tennessee then will take Vince Young,much to the delight of Steve McNair, who has mentored Young overthe past years. Young's mobility will make him a very good fitfor the Titans. Yes, his throwing motion is unconventional and alot has been said about how we will suffer in the NFL because ofhis style. Forget all that. Young led the nation in passing witha 168.6 rating this year and passed for over 2,700 yards and 26touchdowns. Better numbers than Leinart. We witnessed greatnessin the Rose Bowl, and witnessed a legend being born. Changing sports for just a moment, which college basketball teamis more for real: Texas or Villanova? GJ, BoDog.com: Both teams are definite powerhouses. I picked therevitalized Longhorns at the start of the season to battle Dukeall season long. Their early season set-back to Duke seemed tostagger them, losing the next game to Tennessee. Since then,they have won five straight, including an impressive win inMemphis. People are starting to talk again about aback-to-back-to-back championship for Texas (baseball, football,and now possibly basketball). Villanova had their first loss athome to West Virginia, then slugged out a hard-fought overtimevictory Wednesday night at Rutgers. The guard-heavy Wildcatshave already shown that they play extremely well against Big 12schools, with impressive victories over Kansas and Oklahoma.Have fun at the game! Should be quite a battle. BA, Professional Handicapper's League: I have Villanova as thebetter team only because they are more experienced and boastmore weapons. Aside from Tucker and Gibson, the Longhorns don'tknow exactly where their offense will come for night in andnight out. Sure, Aldridge will get you some points and Buckmanwill battle underneath, but the Cats have four players that canlight it up on any given night....